Investment & Investing

made a small in ISA purchase of U.K. Inflation-Linked Gilt Index fund on the basis that future inflation risk is largely priced in.

obvs i could completely misunderstand the situation; let's see what happens.

Edit - would help to specify the product correctly

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3291456

Moving all my crypto into LEGO

Is there an ETF for LEGO toys? I can't seem to find one.

Getting Beanie Babies flashbacks. Surely not all Lego kits are created equal?(and to judge by recent social media, it seems that many legos produced during the Covid travel restrictions were indeed not created equal).

They seem to make a set for a short time, so if you have the money eventually it'll go up when they have sold out. Is it worth filling your spare room with lego, im not so sure.

The risk there is investing in the wrong sets, whether directly or indirectly.

Back in the 90s when Fort Legoredo came out for Xmas, it was the talk of the (small) town. $85 usd RRP, but if you delayed you’d be looking at a easy 2x markup on the streets.

Today I see used sets advertised on eBay for £250, which isn’t bad. But that’s for the primo sets, not the innumerable smaller sets sold nowadays.

Also the risk that you're bored one Sunday afternoon and significantly devalue the stock by building it.

👀

Did I have to sell quite a lot before the rally? Yep…

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Reminds me I should see about contributing more to my pension. We have two options

You sacrifice some of your salary to your pension. This figure is deducted from your gross salary, so you do not pay tax and ni on the amount you have sacrificed. The total deducted is then paid into your pension scheme along with 50% of the Employer’s NI savings that we as company save by you sacrificing some of your salary. For instance, if you chose to sacrifice £100 per month the total amount paid into your pension scheme per month is £106.90. (£100.00 x 13.8% / 2 = £106.90).

You choose to pay into your pension from your net pay. This is taken after you have paid tax and ni. The total deducted is then paid into your pension scheme but is then topped up by HMRC by 20%. For instance, if your salary is £1,200 per month and you choose to pay an employee pension of 2% per month then £24 – 20% is paid into your pension scheme but is then topped up by 20% by HMRC. (£24 + 20% = £28.80)

I've no idea which one. Let's say I don't need the extra cash I'd be dumping in the pension, which of these would you choose and why? Normally I'd take the one the offered the lower tax amount but now I've no idea.

Salary sacrifice, extra free money

Could someone please explain if it’s common practice for the DTC to set a 100% collateral haircut to securities issued by lender banks to its the DTC and NSCC? It seems like it should be, from a risk management perspective it would otherwise create a vicious circle of dependencies…

https://www.dtcc.com/-/media/Files/pdf/2023/5/1/Important-Notice_DTC-Haircut-Updates-20230502_Final.pdf

This, also less admin, especially if you are a higher rate tax payer.

Salary sacrifice is better generally. For the same net pay you get more in your pension. (Free money basically.) If you had children or some other specific tax circumstances it can help because as far as the taxman is concerned you're earning less.

The main downside is if you have a mortgage I think as the bank will think you earn less than you actually do, so if you have to do affordability checks it can impact that. But you can just reduce your salary sacrifice to zero 3 months before mortgage renewal and the bank won't care.

There are some other downsides here:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/salary-sacrifice-and-your-pension

Basically take the free money

Doesn't salary sacrifice also mean that you don't have to faff around with tax returns to gross up your contributions, if you are a higher band earner.

Salary sacrifice is "better" financially on the payslip (you pay less tax and NI)
Net schemes tend to be based on 80% of your gross and then the 20% difference is added by the pension provider via HMRC.
But you pay tax and NI on full earnings.

As mentioned some mortgage providers will only look at your taxable, but most look past the pension and base it on full gross.
It all depends on how your company administer the pension.
I've never seen one take your pension from your annual salary and not show your conts, but it is feasible.
(Payroller by profession with 2 decades of experience)

Cheers you lot. I'll have a think about it (and probably ask the same question in here in 2 years time).

I won't be getting a new mortgage any time soon so that's no drama.

I see this stuff about pensions and feel somewhat happy I'm in the LGPS scheme

In other news, a pleasant surprise to see a £25 PB win after 9 odd months of fuck all...

ouch! but yeah they seem to have turned it around..... shareholders love cost-cutting. sacked all the product managers uploading tiktoks of their 'day in the life'

In other news, a pleasant surprise to see a £25 PB win after 9 odd months of fuck all...

Reminded me to check, won £100! That's a first for me.

Fuck all for me again.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Though it’s been a pretty savage time for lots of folks there with threat of redundancy hanging over them.

Morgan Stanley cutting their headcount by about 5% globally doesn’t sound too promising.

Looking at last weeks earning call I still say META is overpriced. Their margins are shot and not just because of severance pay.

Anyone long on UK banks, I'm gonna be adding barclays to my isa this year as much as I can. Dividend is good, but who knows what the future holds.
Worth a punt long term.

Any recommendations to get basic financial literacy? Absolute beginner and a bit risk adverse. Is an ISA with an index long term the right thing? Apologies if this is a bit of a thread derailer 🫣

When I started out investing I found Hargreaves Lansdown's resources and Tim Hale's Smarter Investing good for the basics. Martin Lewis did a financial education textbook that could be worth a look.